President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education has been met with condemnation from Massachusetts leaders and the state’s largest teachers union.
Trump promised on the campaign trail to do away with the agency. Its official dismantling would require an act of Congress.
“We’re going to shut it down, and shut it down as quickly as possible,” Trump said. “It’s doing us no good.”
Educators expressed concern that the move would impact class sizes while taking resources away from students. Democratic elected officials, including Gov. Maura Healey, sounded off on the measure, while Republicans who spoke with NBC10 Boston Thursday applauded it.
“What they’re doing is applying a wrecking ball to the Department of Education that’s going to affect 50 million public school students and college students across the country,” said Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Gov. Maura Healey is expressing concern about how some of President Donald Trump’s moves will affect Massachusetts.
“To me, this is really distressing,” Healey told NBC10 Boston in an interview Thursday. “I think it’s a dumb idea. It seems to me we should be doing everything we can to make America more competitive, continue to invest in education, and I can tell you as governor, I’m going to continue to support and invest in education in our state.”
Healey was not alone among Massachusetts Democrats to criticize Trump’s move, with some also calling out billionaire advisor Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.
“Before Linda McMahon was sworn in, Donald Trump and Elon Musk were already working to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education,” Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said in a statement shared by Healey’s office. “Today’s executive order does nothing to improve opportunities and outcomes for students but instead will negatively impact our most vulnerable student populations and exacerbate longstanding challenges around wealth inequality. As a former history teacher, I know how important public education is to a functioning democracy. The fight to protect students’ civil rights is urgent and here.”
“This is a code red for every public school student, parent, and teacher in this country. Trump is telling public school kids in America that their futures don’t matter,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement. “Billionaires like Trump and Musk won’t feel the difference when after school programs are slashed, class sizes go up, and help for families to pay for school gets cut. But working families, students, and teachers will pay a heavy price.”
“President Trump, Elon Musk, and Secretary McMahon have a clear education agenda: stealing from public schools to fund tax breaks for billionaires,” added Sen. Ed Markey in his own statement. “Dismantling the Department of Education is just code for cuts to public schools, educators, students, and parents. Their anti-student, anti-family, anti-educator plan to dismantle the Department will harm every community across the country. They are attempting to privatize education, locking the promise of opportunity in an ivory tower accessible only to those born into the right circumstances.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley reacted to President Donald Trump’s forthcoming executive order calling for the U.S. Department of Education to be shut down.
“Every child will feel the impact, and we will feel it for generations,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley told NBC10 Boston Wednesday after learning Trump planned to sign the order the next day. “To defund Head Start? I have 2,600 low-income families in my district that rely upon that early education and care.”
Republicans, meanwhile, defended the move.
“Not one child is educated by the Department of Education, not one school is run by the Department of Education. This is a great day for students,” said Massachusetts Republican strategist Wendy Wakeman.
In Massachusetts, about 9.7% percent of school funding comes from the federal government, totaling about $2.1 billion. School districts are now afraid to lose millions.
“The community is very upset and disturbed by the actions that the federal government is taking,” said Margaret Foley, a reading teacher in Framingham — a district that receives about $9 million in federal funding.
With President Trump signing an executive order calling for the U.S. Department of Education to be dismantled, we’re looking into whether he actually can get rid of a federal department, what the department actually does and why it was founded.
Established in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter’s administration, the Department of Education distributes financial aid for FAFSA applications, oversees federal government grant funding, and is responsible for overseeing policies enacted by Congress.
“Those old ways are failing our children,” Wakeman argued. “We need new ideas. We need new life, and one of the ways to do it is to get rid of this bureaucratic bloat.”
For now, cities throughout the state are still scrambling to figure out exactly how their schools will be affected.
“We haven’t really fully understood what it is going to mean when it gets down to the ground in Massachusetts, so we’re going to talk with our team, figure out what impacts it may have,” said Revere Mayor Patrick Keefe Jr.
